Rouge the Bat
Rouge the Bat (ルージュ・ザ・バット Rūju za Batto) is a fictional, anthropomorphic bat from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Rouge is a jewel thief, part-time government agent (working for G.U.N.), and self-proclaimed treasure huntress who plans to make all the gems and treasures of the world hers. Her current jewel obsessions are the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds. She made her debut in Sonic Adventure 2 and has been featured in the Sonic the Hedgehog console games, along with five handheld games since. In nine of the thirteen games she has appeared in to date, Rouge wears a skintight black tube-style body suit with a large fuchsia heart-shaped breast plate, long white gloves, and white thigh-high boots with pink hearts on the toes. Her boots have metal heels and soles. Whatever she stomps on is left with serious damage. She also has long eyelashes and wears blue (or pink in Sonic Heroes) eye-shadow. In Sonic Heroes, she wore a different outfit with similar color schemes and heart-shaped details. History Early Life Not much is known of Rouge's origins or past, though at some point she gained an obsession with jewels and became a treasure hunter. She also joined the Guardian Units of Nations as an undercover agent, and was paid for her services with gems and other riches. She gained possession of the blue Chaos Emerald at some point. Sonic Adventure 2 At some point, Rouge learned of the Master Emerald and went after it, hoping to steal it from Knuckles the Echidna. She was seen arguing with Knuckles over it as she tried to convince him to "just let it go". Their argument was interrupted when the notorious Dr. Eggman, whom Rouge had heard of but never seen, arrived to take the Emerald for himself—which didn't go as planned, as Knuckles jumped up and smashed it. This prompted both Knuckles and Rouge to find all of the shards before the other did. However, just prior to beginning her search, Rouge apparently placed a tracker on the Eggmobile, which enabled her to later locate his pyramid base. After finding three Emerald shards in Dry Lagoon, Rouge headed for the Egg Quarters, where she sent a message to the President's secretary through some sort of device apparently concealed in her glove. Finding three keys to enter Eggman's computer room, she discovers his space transporter, which is set to the Space Colony ARK Rouge had heard about. Using the machine, she heads for the central control room of the ARK. When she arrives, she strikes a deal with the Doctor and Shadow the Hedgehog: if he gives her his Emerald detector to the Master Emerald shards, then she would give him the blue Chaos Emerald she had found and would help him obtain the others, three of which she knew their locations. Around this time, she begins to investigate the Ultimate Lifeform and Project Shadow. On Prison Island, Rouge steals three of the Emeralds after breaking into Security Hall. However, a guard robot appears and the vault is sealed, leaving her trapped in the building as Eggman's bomb is about to go off. Fortunately, she manages to destroy the robot, and is saved just in time by Shadow, who used Chaos Control. Back on the ARK, they threaten the world with the Eclipse Cannon, giving the President twenty-four hours to surrender the United Federation to the Eggman Empire, or else they would destroy the country. Rouge was later supposed to try and guard the ARK from the intruders (Sonic the Hedgehog, Amy Rose, Miles "Tails" Prower and Knuckles) after Eggman failed to stop them (and ended up having to get out of the mess he got himself into) but instead started snooping around about the Ultimate Lifeform for the President. Later she discovered that Knuckles' stash of the Master Emerald Shards had accidentally been jettisoned into space, and used the opportunity to try to complete the Master Emerald. However, shortly after finding them, she encountered Knuckles at a Space Structure Planetoid and dueled with him for the Emerald Shards. However, her recklessness gets the better of her and she nearly falls into a pit of lava, where she is saved by Knuckles. They have an intimate moment before Rouge pulls her hand away from him and offers some bashful remarks. In the end, she gives him the Emerald Shards, claiming that "they stink like echidnas do", and takes off. She continues to assist Shadow and Eggman, until she is revealed by Shadow to be a secret agent working for G.U.N., who also stops Rouge from taking the Emeralds from the Eclipse Cannon shortly after overhearing her plans. However, Eggman, while attempting to activate the Eclipse Cannon, unknowingly activates a crash sequence that was secretly programmed into the ARK's main computer. Rouge comes to Sonic and Knuckles to tell them the grave news after learning what was going to happen from the President (although Knuckles initially thought she was attempting to regain the Master Emerald when she arrived). Rouge cheers Sonic and Shadow on during the final battle to save the earth from the Biolizard, and is given Shadow's inhibitor ring by Sonic after his supposed death. She is seen telling Knuckles that she is going to change her treasure-hunting ways; a promise she doesn't sustain. Sonic Heroes In Sonic Heroes, Rouge is the flight member (and presumptive captain) of Team Dark, as the player can have the ability to fly when they play as her. She releases the unconscious Shadow from his stasis pod, and accidentally activates E-123 Omega, who attempts to destroy all of Eggman's robots/androids, including Shadow, who Omega assumes is a robot android. Rouge stops Shadow and E-123 Omega from fighting, suggesting that they work together as a team to find Eggman. She wears a different outfit than in Sonic Adventure 2, sporting a more futuristic pink-and-purple design with the heart motif on her belt rather than her chest. At the windy city, she also accuses Team Chaotix of trying to take Eggman's treasure themselves before their battle against them. Her only objective in the game is to find Eggman's "treasure", which turned out to be a huge room with thousands of capsules containing Shadow's clones, which were destroyed by E-123 Omega soon after. Upon this discovery, she attempts to inform Omega that the Shadow accompanying them was likely to be an android made in the original's likeness, but decided against it, although Omega deduced enough about what she was about to say and informed her that the original Shadow had to have existed if the Shadow Androids are present. Shadow the Hedgehog Rouge also appears in Shadow the Hedgehog, helping with the Hero missions in Digital Circuit, Death Ruins, and GUN Fortress. In Expert Mode, Rouge lends her voice to Shadow at the beginning of Cryptic Castle, Lava Shelter, and The Last Way (along with the voice of every other character that appears in Expert Mode). In her levels, she rescues the Chaos Emerald and fights the Black Arms when they are pushed back into the forest. Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) In SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, Rouge appears as an "Amigo" character, playable in stages White Acropolis, Kingdom Valley, Flame Core and Tropical Jungle. She first appears escaping Eggman's base with Shadow after stealing the Scepter of Darkness as part of a mission from GUN. After escaping, Rouge and Shadow go to Kingdom Valley to find the GUN rendezvous point, however they are ambushed by Eggman and the Scepter is broken after a struggle. Mephiles the Dark emerges from the broken scepter and is reborn in Shadow's shadow and sends the two into the future. Rouge then teams up with Sonic and his friends to find two Chaos Emeralds that enable them to return to their own time. Rouge returns to the present alone and realizes that Shadow has stayed in the future. Rouge then goes about finding E-123 Omega and sends him to help Shadow. Rouge eventually finds that Omega and Shadow have found a way back from the future and so teams up with them once again to find Mephiles, Omega confesses that he betrays Shadow in the future and that one day the whole world will turn against him. Rouge assures her friend that "even if he believes everyone in the world will turn against him, she will always remain by his side". Rouge then helps Shadow, along with Omega, to try to defeat Mephiles and seal him in the new Scepter of Darkness. However this attempt does not work because Mephiles is using Shadow's form. Thanks to Shadow, the trio then defeat all of Mephiles' clones only to find out later than Mephiles actually escaped. She later helps the rest of the crew save Sonic. Sonic Generations In the console/PC version of Sonic Generations, Rouge attended and helped preparing Sonic's surprise birthday. As the party started, however, the Time Eater suddenly appeared´and Rouge was sucked into one of the Time Eater's Time Holes and ended up in the White Space, where she was turned into a statue due to the Time Eater's effects. Eventually, Rouge was returned to normal by Classic Sonic (Sonic's past self) and Modern Sonic (Sonic's present self). When Classic and Modern Sonic confronted the Time Eater, which was revealed to be controlled by Modern Eggman and Classic Eggman, Rouge arrived at the battle with the others and cheered on both Sonics, allowing them both to transform into Super Sonic. When the Sonics defeated the Time Eater, Rouge and the others were sent back to the present. Continuing with the celebration, Rouge later waved goodbye to Classic Sonic and Classic Tails when they returned to their own time. Personality Rouge is a strong-minded young woman, a fearless, treasure-hunting, ambitious, independent, flirty, ruthless, calculating narcissist who most people see as only caring for herself and her gems. It is shown in Sonic Generations that Rouge can be referred to a temptress, due to her flirtatious and selfish ways. Her carefree and playful attitude can be fun or even annoying for the other characters of the series, especially Knuckles. She has a lot of pride and starts to fight dirty when facing a superior opponent, such as Knuckles (when it comes to power) or Tails (when it comes to flight). She can also show a bashful side, such as the time Knuckles saved her life from falling into her doom and became very embarrassed before disguising it with disgust and outrage. Rouge is also at times a government spy who works for her own good. Rouge has a great obsession for jewels or even anything else that shines or glitters. She has been known to seduce people with her attractiveness to get what she wants (such as kissing Tails in Sonic Battle). However, she has, on occasion, shown that she can be heroic. In the final events of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, she helped to save the planet. In Sonic Heroes, she stopped Shadow the Hedgehog and E-123 Omega from killing each other, and is seen battling Chaotix and Sonic as liabilities to her quest to finding Dr. Eggman's supposed hidden treasure room. In Sonic Battle, when Shadow was injured and needed a place to stay, Rouge helped him. In Shadow the Hedgehog, she did other laudable things, such as rescuing a Chaos Emerald from the doomed mainframe, destroying the evil monster Black Bull, and assisting Shadow in defeating Black Doom as well as showing concern for Shadow's welfare at the end of the game. Recently, she has been becoming less selfish, as can be seen by her actions towards Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) and Sonic Rivals. However, as shown in her portrayal in Sonic Free Riders, which depicts her as a very cold and only caring about her and the cash prize suggest that she has not changed much, regarding her interest in jewels and riches. This is proved as she couldn't care less that her robot team member broke down and even went on to insult it as well. Rouge is often known to switch between the sides of good and evil whether to succeed to get her jewelry or to save the world from danger. Powers and Abilities Physical Abilities As both a part-government spy for G.U.N. and expert thief, Rouge is one of the strongest female characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Swift and powerful, Rouge has proved herself to be a force to be reckoned with in terms of physical abilities, both by her allies and her enemies. In terms of raw power, Rouge's physical strength rivals that of Knuckles the Echidna. However, unlike Knuckles, whose strength lies in his upper body, Rouge's strength lies in her lower body, particularly in her legs and feet. Her high strength enables her to shatter boulders, slice through pieces of metal or even leave dents in thick steel walls with her kicks. She can even potentially split her opponents in half with precise kicks and create small earthquakes to trip opponents by striking the ground. With the wings on her back, Rouge possesses the natural ability to achieve flight and is also able to glide by using her wings to manipulate her descend. When flying, Rouge can move as fast as Knuckles' gliding, but not as fast as Sonic or Shadow can run. Nevertheless, Rouge possesses an innate quickness, making her fast on her feet and can reach super speeds when running, though she is still not as fast as Sonic, Tails or Shadow. Rouge has also proven herself to be quite acrobatic, precise and agile, on both the ground and in midair due to her government training. She is able to perform all kinds of actions and movements while in midair effortlessly, grind on rails and as well perform several types of nimble movements in combat with incredible precision. Much like Knuckles, Rouge is an expert climber and can climb on any kind of surface, no matter the material. She is also excellent at digging and tunneling through subterranean regions. Rouge has also proven herself to be a very experienced swimmer, possibly due to her being a treasure hunter, enabling her to swim with both great speed and skill, and can reach amazing depths. Stealth and Infiltration Expertise As both a government spy and self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Thief", Rouge has been trained in infiltration and is skilled in the art of stealth as well. As most times, however, she uses these skills to pull different kinds of successful heists, and has proven herself as a master thief. As a result of her training, Rouge can surreptitiously enter enemy-held territory, either through stealth or by manipulation of others, such as when she tricked Shadow and Dr. Eggman into believing that she was willing to help them in Sonic Adventure 2 when she was send to investigate the doctor, and can hack computers and break codes in record time with successful results nearly every time. She is also stealthy enough to move nearly undetected through even the most fortified of locations, such as Prison Island, Dr. Eggman's various bases or Space Colony ARK and sneak up on people without bringing attention to herself. Combat Skills Rouge is well-versed in all kinds of combat and knows how to fight, making her a dangerous foe in battle. As a spy for the United Federation, Rouge has gone through several forms of special training in self-defense and knows a variety of martial arts. Her skills in combat are so great that she was able to fight the combat-versed Knuckles the Echidna to a standstill when confronting him on Space Colony ARK. Miscellaneous Skills Like real-life bats, Rouge has an excellent and sensitive sense of hearing, allowing her to hear even hear Espio, who is known as an expert ninja and a master of stealth, when he is in her proximity. Also, as hinted by her move Shriek and some of her moves in Sonic Battle, Rouge can make ultrasonic shrieks, just like real bats, to both attack her opponents or leave them disorientated. Rouge is one of the world's most foremost treasure hunters, as seen during her hunts for the Emerald Shards and the Chaos Emeralds, and her skills on the subject rivals even that of Knuckles'. Rouge has proven herself as being very talented at riding with Extreme Gear, as seen in Sonic Free Riders, where she is able to go toe-to-toe with some of the best Extreme Gear riders in the world. While in midair, she is capable of doing several acrobatic tricks with her Extreme Gear and can as well dash through midair with her Extreme Gear with her wings to pass through shortcuts through the tracks. Gallery Category:Sega Characters Category:Sonic Characters Category:Dreamcast Debut Category:All Characters